Florida Keys Coral Disease Intervention Strike Teams

The Florida Keys Disease Intervention Strike Team was funded to treat and monitor SCTLD-affected corals during the 2023-24 fiscal year. Between July 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024, intervention work was conducted over 255 diver-days, including 784 dives and 1040 hours of underwater work. Over 246 acres of reef throughout the Florida Keys were surveyed every two months. During this time frame, a total of 283 newly infected corals were tagged, measured, mapped, photographed, and treated. Newly treated corals were from 10 species, with an average diameter of 131 cm. Additionally, 613 corals treated during previous years required new treatments. The estimated amount of coral tissue protected from SCTLD lesions during this fiscal year was 5421 m2.This tissue area is equivalent to over 2.09 million outplants, the cost of which to raise and outplant isestimated to be between $21 million and $210 million.

The required regular monitoring of sites and corals through the intervention project has created an unprecedented patient history of known corals across ites, habitats, and species. Value-added components of this work have been to track the progression of SCTLD on known susceptible colonies through space and time, to follow large numbers of known colonies through the 2023 bleaching event, and to monitor species and temporal detail not picked up in other monitoring programs. Knowing the health histories of these colonies has also allowed us to identify a potentially novel disease (FLP – fast lesion progression), look at whether antibiotic resistant genes have developed through amoxicillin use, assess gametogenesis across health and treatment regimes, select highly susceptible colonies for probiotics testing, and select colonies for the Reef Resilience Consortium to determine potential factors influencing resistance to SCTLD. None of this work would be possible without the extensive efforts of tagging, monitoring, and keeping corals alive done to date.

In early May, 2024, FKNMS and Florida DEP announced they were not renewing SCTLD intervention permitting/funding within the Sanctuary. Whether the tags that identify the fate-tracked corals will be allowed to remain is still in question. Our primary recommendations are that the tags be allowed to remain, at least until further consideration can be given to the value and opportunities they continue to provide; removing them is akin to throwing out medical records. We also hope that managers will recognize the incredible value of intervention. For the first time in history, we have a tool that can actually prevent the mortality of the biggest, oldest animals in the world. Even with orders of magnitude more time and money than restoration has, these centuries-old organisms cannot be replaced, and their losses to a disease we can prevent from killing them is unconscionable.